Musicians’ bodies dumped in well

MONTERREY, MEXICO – Mexican authorities are investigating why a band that performed love songs was kidnapped and killed by gunmen, who dumped their bodies in a well in the drug cartel-infested north.

The killings underscored yet again the pervasiveness of Mexico’s grisly drug violence, which has claimed more than 70,000 lives since the 2006 launch of a military crackdown on the powerful, feuding cartels.

Authorities said late Tuesday they had pulled 17 bodies from a desert well in the northern state of Nuevo Leon since Sunday, with 14 confirmed so far as members of the band Kombo Kolombia.